1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance station for use in an imaging apparatus and, more particularly, to a maintenance station having acoustical dampening.
2. Description of the Related Art
An imaging apparatus, such as an ink jet printer, includes a maintenance station that performs maintenance operations to preserve the life of the associated printhead. For example, an ink jet printer includes an ink jet printhead having a plurality of ink jetting nozzles formed in a nozzle plate. Such a maintenance station for an ink jet printer includes a printhead wiper and a printhead capping mechanism. The printhead wiper is used for wiping residual ink from the nozzles of the ink jet printhead after completion of printing and the capping mechanism is used to cap the ink jet printhead for storage. The wiping and capping operations prevent the nozzles from becoming blocked with contaminants, such as dried ink and accumulated paper dust, thereby extending the life of the ink jet printhead.
One such maintenance station is configured to minimize the occupied space. The maintenance station includes a movable maintenance sled, that supports the wiper and capping mechanism. A maintenance housing surrounds the maintenance sled and includes guide slots for receiving corresponding guide pins of the maintenance sled. When the printhead carrier that carries the ink jet printhead carriage engages an engaging member of the maintenance station, the guide pins are caused to ride in the guide slots, enabling the movable maintenance sled to be shifted from a lowered position to a raised position, where the printhead cap engages the ink jet printhead. Typically, a spring is disposed between the maintenance sled and the maintenance housing to facilitate the return of the movable maintenance sled from the raised position to the lowered position. However, when the movable maintenance sled returns from the raised position to the lowered position by virtue of the spring, an unacceptable amount of noise is generated as the maintenance sled impacts another portion of the printer, such as the printer mid-frame, and/or as the guide pins of the maintenance sled contact a surface of the respective guide slots in the maintenance housing, such as the rigid end-stops of the respective guide slots of the maintenance housing.
What is needed in the art is a maintenance station that includes a mechanism to reduce the noise associated with the return of the maintenance sled to the lowered position.